Time Allocation in Times of Structural Transformation

Abstract

This study focuses on time allocation in 1995 by married or cohabiting, employed or homemaking Dutch women and men aged between 25 and 44. It asks (1) What role does gender play in time-allocation decisions? (2) What effects do situational factors have on time allocation, and do these effects differ between the sexes? Time-allocation models were developed for women and men separately, such that paid work affected unpaid work and free time, and free time, in turn, was affected by paid and unpaid work. It was found that women's unpaid work, rather than their free time, acts as a time buffer when more time is allocated to paid work, whereas men's free time rather than unpaid work time assumes this function. Although time allocation is still gendered, time-use patterns of both women and men at the end of the 20th century are differentiated by situational factors. In the present-day institutional Dutch context, the combination of having children and performing market work implies a relative loss of free time for women and men alike which is believed to be connected with a loss of control over time.